


Supersaturation

by apotropaicsymbol



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Symbiotes Win, Gen, Slavery, Venom POV, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-28 18:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19399609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apotropaicsymbol/pseuds/apotropaicsymbol
Summary: Life isn't easy for Venom as the loser of the cohort, but the one consolation is that the rules are very clear. Too bad everyone is breaking them except him.Takes place in an AU where the symbiotes have conquered Earth.





	Supersaturation

Enjoying your host too much, or too openly, was never tolerated – the Hierarchy line was that hosts were tools, high-value military assets at _best_ and at worst, rotten meat. But lots of people in Venom’s cohort angled to get human hosts, and everyone knew why even if they never said it out loud.

On planets far snowier than the one they got the humans from, when Venom was stuck with hosts sluggish and slow-moving from the cold, the beautiful people of Cohort 19 would gush about their hosts. How, despite the frost, their host’s blood was no less hot and sharp with hormones; how their smooth, soft skin hid nerve endings of astonishing sensitivity; how the whole enjoyable package was wrapped up with lustrous hair. (Which was, somehow, just as soft, just in a different way. Not that Venom would know.)

 **So obnoxious. They have had those hosts for six missions and they** _ **still will not shut up about them**_ , Venom grumped. **A third of our fuel is going to keeping the base warm so that these things don't freeze to death. Why would you even want something so fragile.**

 **Is that what you think?** Scream said. **Oh, Venom. You don’t get it**. Scream had recently been punished after an extremely embarrassing fuck-up. Unlike Venom, who was consistently an unremarkable failure, Scream alternated between being a truly terrifying shapeshifter or an unbelievably incompetent moron, with nothing in between. Thus, she lost her hot-blooded host and got, instead, one not much better than Venom’s own. It probably didn’t help that she had insisted on mimicking its mane to a ridiculous extent, even when Riot told her not to. **This is not about the body. Humans are…special.**

She was doing that thing that people always did, where they would hint at some truth that everyone knew except him.

 **This is just a way they can talk about it without Riot coming down on them**.

**Talk about what?**

Little swirls of Scream wriggled in the icy air. Up here on the base’s roof, where the wind blew harshest, nobody would come. Nobody except two losers.

 **When I was in my last…** Scream began, then trailed off. **Like, everyone tells you how good it feels. And it does. But it doesn't take long for you to realize that they have omitted serious data. There is a _reason_ why people brag about human bodies. _Constantly_. Do you really think that Lasher or Agony would be fine with diverting _this amount of resources_ if we were anywhere else? Or, more precisely, if we were _in_ anyone else? **

**What do you m–**

**Half our cohort are traitors** , Scream said quietly.

The sentence hung in the air.

All of the training maxims – _you infest your host, do not let your host infest you – no matter how the mind rebels, the brain will welcome its true master – bodies are prisons, to break into, break out of, and break into pieces – if we are not hosts’ masters we will be their slaves – you infest your host, DO NOT LET YOUR HOST INFEST YOU –_

– echoed in Venom’s memory.

Half the cohort. And Riot was known for his adherence to Doctrine. If anything, this group skewed conservative. _Half the cohort_.

 **Of course I am the last to know** , Venom said, because that was easier than talking about the fact that _Agony and Lasher_ were apparently traitors.

(And what about the other cohorts? If there even were Klyntar outside of the Hierarchy, what about them?)

 **Of course** , Scream said loftily, shaping something that looked like a mane and tossing it haughtily before letting it dissolve. **But seriously, Venom, they are not – you know, so many of our prey are animals. Or almost-animals. But humans –** and here she extended a tendril, switching from open communication to private chemical signaling – **you can almost imagine staying with them forever. Giving them what they wanted, letting them use you.** She rippled in a shiver. Terror and desire. **You almost see how it might be worth it. Chaining yourself to carbon.**

That was another maxim. _Carbon comes in chains, do not chain yourself to carbon_. Why did they spend so much of their training memorizing maxims? Almost hilarious. It clearly didn’t work out the way it was intended to. Poor Riot, so deeply committed to the Hierarchy, with all his favorite soldiers all-but-openly swooning over acquisitions that, from a military perspective, didn’t have much to recommend them. Now _that_ washilarious. All those who had sneered at Venom for being weak hid a weakness of their own that _far exceeded his_. Ha _ha._

If nothing else, this would be a useful way to rise up the ranks. Like all team leaders, Riot was chosen for how much he enjoyed eating traitors (not really, but sort of). This was quite the beneficial information, and Venom intended to use it beneficially. But –

**If you could have your human back, would you want it?**

Scream didn’t answer. And that was answer enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Thank you for reading.


End file.
